


song of the carrion bird

by perennials



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Character Study, Gen, happy birthday kid, spoilers for shiratorizawa match
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 02:48:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16109219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perennials/pseuds/perennials
Summary: Tsukishima Kei is hooked on volleyball.





	song of the carrion bird

**Author's Note:**

> happy birthday kid who is now younger than me although when i first started reading haikyuu you were like 3 years older and 3 mountains taller. keep on keeping on

There are many things about Tsukishima Kei that people would be surprised to know. He knows the Bronze Age better than the Meiji era. He’s good at math, but only because it annoys him to see his test grades droop and so he works extra hard at it. He’s scared of the dark.

 

There are many things about Tsukishima Kei that the world would be quite possibly blown away by. This is by pure merit of his sarcastic quips, his cynical silence, the way his gaze cuts like a butter knife with a too-sharp edge. Like he’s practised it, like he knows what he’s doing. Like he is synonymous with the sort of cool, tall, and judgmental that keeps people at a distance. And, well, he does know what he’s doing.

 

As a general rule, Kei knows what he’s doing. He thinks ahead; he makes battle plans. He dips not his toes but a whole thermometer into the pool before he steps in so none of him will get burned. He dips a thermometer into volleyball, tries to walk away.

 

He gets yanked headfirst into the water.

 

Because there are many things about Tsukishima Kei that, it turns out, even he himself would be quite surprised to know. For instance: somewhere along the way, without his realizing it, volleyball stops being a way to kill time, and starts being a killer waste of time. As in, he spends way too much of it doing receives and blocking spikes and being dead fucking tired. As in, he shouldn’t enjoy it, because the hours he usually spends on extra math practice are slipping away like sawdust.

 

But he does. Enjoy it, he means. He does. Killer waste of time. Killer. His legs are killing him. That’s all.

 

This is how it starts: Karasuno versus Shiratorizawa. Crows and eagles. All of them burning the floor away, all of them hungry for blood. Kei should not be in the midst of them.

 

This is how it should go: Hinata and Kageyama hog the spotlight like monsters so the rest of the team can be their own brand of terrifying— Yamaguchi’s float serves, Asahi’s earth-shattering spikes, Sugawara’s telepathic ability to read the court and keep them all from stumbling apart. Daichi’s ability to read the court and keep them on their toes. And Kei, in the background, doing his best to get by without suffering too much collateral damage.

 

But it turns out Kei doesn’t always know what he’s doing after all. Maybe he should know better, no, he probably should, says the niggling voice in his head, the one who’s never let him raise his hand to say _I care._ He really should. Where are his battle plans? The blueprints are gone. His hands are empty.

 

Because this is how it goes: Ushijima jumps, Kei jumps. There’s a ball. Ushijima jumps, Ushijima spikes, Kei jumps. Kei jumps. There’s a ball.

 

There’s a ball. Ushijima spikes it. Kei blocks it. Finals of the Miyagi Prefecture Representative Playoffs, crows versus eagles, all of them burning the floor away beneath their shoes. Kei blocks it. He blocks it.

 

Kei’s palms are red when he hits the floor again, but his head is still spinning. There’s a feeling in his chest, like someone’s rammed a car into his ribcage. There’s a wall going down.

 

_If you experience that moment—_

 

His head won’t stop spinning. His heart won’t stop hammering. Traitorous, human tendencies, this is why he never wanted to get sucked into this whole mess of people, and friends, and giving a shit about the numbers on the board. This is why he always stood at a distance.

 

_—It’ll really get you—_

 

Tsukishima Kei is tall and cool and judgmental, and collected, and he knows the Bronze Age a whole lot better than the Meiji era. Tsukishima Kei is good at the things that he puts his mind to. Tsukishima Kei is— Tsukishima Kei is—

 

The crowd roars; his hands tremble. All of them hungry for blood. All of them bright as bonfires, as spotlights.

 

Tsukishima Kei is—

 

_—Hooked on volleyball._

  


//

  


Hook, line, sinker. We've got him, Tsukishima Kei, we've got him. Look at that predatory look in his eyes, look at that dagger-sharp gaze. He knows what he’s doing, I'm telling you, he knows where those balls are going to fall, every shooting star hitting the ground with a shout.

 

He knows what he’s doing. He’s in this to win.

**Author's Note:**

> talk to me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/nikiforcvs) or [tumblr](http://corpsentry.tumblr.com/)
> 
> woke up at the asscrack of dawn and typed this up on my phone and anyway i entirely give up on not writing, im just gonna die, history final's tomorrow, yep im dead. okay  
> thank you guys for reading as always, you're lit as all hell. if you liked this thing please consider leaving kudos or a comment, i really appreciate all of them even though i reply at the speed of idk quantum something or whatever. i'll see you when i see you i guess. finals end october 2nd after that i have a list of things planned right such as : future fic krtsk, assassin au with bokuto versus the world, immortality au, and i really wanna write about yachi so ok there we go. there we go. if you wanna yell about anything under the sun catch me on twitter, i'm there a fuck lot
> 
> have a good one


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